Back in April, Rogue One story developer Gary Whitta shared a somewhat cryptic tweet where he implied that he was working on a script for a new Last Starfighter movie with original screenwriter Jonathan Betuel. Despite the high-profile involvement of Whitta, it still seemed far-fetched that the movie would ever actually get made, but now a sequel to The Last Starfighter is looking more and more like a real possibility.
The director of The Last Starfighter, Nick Castle, revealed in a new interview with Bloody Disgusting that the rights to the franchise recently reverted back to Betuel, who is apparently pretty determined to get the film made. Castle also said that he’s looking forward to seeing what Betuel and Whitta cook up — while hoping that it retains some elements from the never-made sequel that he was involved with over a decade ago. “I think it was 2005 and it was going to be at that point a 30 year, 35 year sequel, Castle said. “It was literally a sequel where Lance [Guest] and Catherine Marie [Stewart], the leads, were going to come back as parents. We had a fun script so I’m not sure right now where Jonathan [Betuel] is going to take it. He has a partner named Gary Whitta who wrote Rogue One so he’s in good company there. Hopefully, they’ll mount something fun and we’ll see our characters again.”
The director also expressed his desire to be involved in the upcoming sequel in some capacity, even though he’s taken himself out of the running to direct it. “Now just this last year, the writer has retained the rights legally now,” Castle told Bloody Disgusting. “So he’s going to go out a second time around and get this thing done. I won’t be a part of it as a director. Hopefully, I’ll help out in the background but we’d love to do that. It’s so ready. The ‘80s, of course, are being mined by everything. It’s like the last thing that has not gotten remade or had a sequel. I’d love to see that continue on.”
While we’d love to see a sequel that involves the original cast like Castle described, we have faith in whatever Betuel comes up with. The Last Starfighter is very much his baby, and there’s no way he’s going to allow a subpar sequel to besmirch the legend of his 38-year-old sci-fi classic.
